Stay Away from Romaine Lettuce Causing Deadly E. Coli Outbreak in the Us and Canada

The massive E. coli bacterial strain has made ill seventeen and forty one people in the United States and Canada respectively, one died in the States and Canada as well because of the infections.

Shiga toxin produced by the bacteria is a powerful biological poison, that blocks from producing proteins. The shiga-producing E. coli infection can become deadly in most of the cases of young children, elders as well as people suffering from medical conditions such as diabetes.

previous tests have shown that the bacteria that make people ill found in both the countries has been genetically related that makes it more likely to belong from a common source, according to the report from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC is still struggling to track down the outbreak source, while the health officials in Canada have associated the outbreaks to one of the common food ‘romaine lettuce’.

Deputy director of regulatory affairs, Sarah Sorscher from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which is a nonprofit firm calling greater transparency for food recalls and food safety investigation, said in a statement that, “It’s really unfortunate that they don’t feel they have a firm enough link to advise consumers not to eat this product.”

Sorscher added that, “They don’t want to make the wrong call. For consumers, this is something that can kill children. As a mom, when I read the current CDC notice, I said, ‘Well, I’m not going to buy romaine lettuce for a couple of weeks, because the risk of being wrong as a consumer is very high.”